I want to build something that has expandability, so I was thinking a 64-bit would be the way to go. It's almost worthless to go 32-bit because you can't upgrade those much anymore, and sure won't be able to a few years down the road.

He never told me his budget, but just knowing the guy, I'd say no more than $1,200.... give or take a few hundred. He asked if I could do it for $1,000, and i said probably not.

I was thinking maybe the 939 core 3200+, but what motherboard would work well with that? I haven't researched much in the 64-bit industry, so I need a bunch of help from you guys.

I see Asus only makes one NForce board for the 939, and ABit makes several. I've had great experiences with the NForce chipset, and will probably stick with it, unless you guys think the VIA is enough? I was also thinking of just staying built-in audio if the price gets up there for the entire system. A built-in NIC is needed too.

I guess before I go babbling my head off, what would be something reasonable to get; not too cheap, not too expensive? He isn't a huge gamer, but he will need something decent because his kids are growing up. His kids are both becoming teenagers very soon. I actually think one of his kids is already 14, but I don't foresee her playing many computer games, like HL2, or Doom 3!

Please give me your input!

Thanks a million!!

-Brian

I don't want to let him down with shitty hardware again. His last (well...current) computer was a built one that had one of those dreaded 1GHz TBird cores. Ugh... I hate those so much!

Last edited by NAiLs on Thu Feb 03, 2005 1:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

"Bow down before the one you serve! You're going to get what you deserve!" - |\| | |/|

You'll basically get the same performance from all the 939 boards. if you are looking at the non-SLI boards. The newer SLI boards, while very nice are pretty expensive, and with NVidia's outrageous asking price ($70 fee for each board, which of course gets passed on to the consumer) it remains to be seen if the technology has a long life, especially with cards like Gigabytes new dual processor card.
NVidia is definitely the way to go, but it all depends on what he is going to use it for...games and graphics, typical work stuff (Word processing, spreadsheets, etc)
Given the budget, I'd highly recommend an MSI Diamond board that uses the NF4 and has Creative Audigy sound built in, a 3200-3500 Winchester CPU, a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 HDD, either an Antec NEOPower 480 or OCZ Powerstream PSU, and your choice of Antec case. As far as memory, I'd recommend the Corsair XMS 4400CPT, and a Sony DR22A optical drive......
I do have a system I'm trying to sell that fits your budget. PM me for more information

Last edited by LVCapo on Thu Feb 03, 2005 2:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think the first thing you need to find out is how he plans to use the computer. If he mostly surfs the web and e-mails you can build a system dirt cheap. If he is a gamer or does video editing it's going to require a zippy cpu, a gig of memory and a decent video card. There are a few sites that give value, midrange and high end system configurations for reference - http://www3.sharkyextreme.com/ & http://www.anandtech.com/guides/

A boss is not really going to need a 6600GT is he? Well, I'm not saying there aren't any adult gamers (my dad's crazy at Unreal), but he gonna have other things to do apart from playing games, don't you think? But on the plus side it's better to upgrade to the max rather than going on a budget so you don't need to change everytime.

His words, "I want a zippy system... not this slow piece of **** I have." I'm gonna get a 6600GT most likely because it's a great video card for cheap. It's even an article on the front page, "performance on a budget" My brother has the XFX 6600GT and it's great.

Sorry I haven't replied to anyone in a while. My boss decided he wanted a brand new system regardless if it were only 2 months old. His money I guess.

"Bow down before the one you serve! You're going to get what you deserve!" - |\| | |/|

Cool recommendation on the case. Simple, just how he wants it. I was looking at the RAIDMAX ATX-822WBP, but after I told him it has a few lights on it, he said, "I'll keep my desk door closed then. It took me forever to get used to the lights on the cable modem."

I just said to myself, wtf... They're tiny LED's... and those took you forever to get used to!?!?

Eek... looking at the price of that... $100 compared to that RAIDMAX at $50-60.

"Bow down before the one you serve! You're going to get what you deserve!" - |\| | |/|

My boss never got a chance to pick his computer up tonight, so I'm bringing it with me to work tomorrow. So because of that, tonight I decided I would throw Sandra on the box and tested it against the hardware in MY desktop PC. Yeah... it freakin' screams!! The memory is like twice as fast, CPU is also like 40% faster! <3 64-bit systems! This almost makes me want to update my system.... although I'll probably wait 'til the end of the year.

Thanks for the help, fellas!

"Bow down before the one you serve! You're going to get what you deserve!" - |\| | |/|